McGill Tribune Vol. 35 Issue 5

The McGill Tribune T curiosity delivers

TUEsday, October 6, 2015

Editorial: Reimagining SSMU to ensure future sustainability

Volume No. 35 Issue No. 05

pg. 5

feature: Evolving the mental health e-world

By Laura Hanrahan pg. 8 - 9

m c gilltribune.com @m c gilltribune

FLASHBACK L’amour l’Aprés Midi (1972) Nico Wada Contributor

ssmu, ckut host federal election candidates debate PG. 2 Local federal election candidates debate in the SSMU Ballroom. (L-A Benoit / McGill Tribune)

SSMU to close club offices this month in space reallocation Fourth floor to include bookable spaces, more storage for clubs Aislinn Kalob News Editor Club offices on the fourth floor of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Building will be vacated this month, with the space being redesigned into bookable rooms and storage space for clubs. The plan includes two board rooms

and one multi-purpose space, as well as desk space to be used for club office hours. The fourth floor will see an increase in generalized storage space, which Kimber Bialiak, vice-president (VP) Clubs and Services hopes will accommodate more clubs and their storage needs.

“Last year, there were 35 groups that had club office

T he V i ew p o i nt

space, and one of my issues with club offices is that we have over 230 groups,” Bialik said. “We’re only able to offer space to about 30 of them every year, and it really depends on who’s able to get their application in the fastest, it’s kind of an arbitrary process.”

Bialik explained that the reason for the redistribution of space was to make the space al-

location process for clubs more equitable.

“The fourth floor is supposed to be a community space for student groups,” Bialik said.

“It’s really great for the 30 or so who get space every year, and then the other 200 get nothing.”

Continued on pg. 2

Love in the Afternoon ( L’Amour L’Après Midi ) (1972) is the last of French New Wave director Eric Rohmer’s series of comedies known as the “Six Moral Tales.” Though Rohmer was initially overshadowed by big names in the French New Wave such as Chabrol, Godard, and Truffaut, he developed a name for himself with his distinctly realistic style. Rohmer praised cinema as a privileged art form, saying in an interview that films “most faithfully transcribe the beauty of the real world.”

Rohmer’s keen cinematic eye brings a clear interpretation of reality to the screen, which serves as a refreshing juxtaposition to today’s highly stylized Hollywood films.

The colourful characters in Love in the Afternoon give the film its unique charm.

Rohmer’s style is to take archetypal figures—in this case the discontented married man, the bored housewife, and the seductive temptress—and transform them into complex individuals with blood pumping through their veins.

Continued on pg. 7

r e s t a u r a nt o . n o i r Dining in the dark is most enlightening

Ariella garmaise Contributor Tucked away near the corner of Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Rue Prince Arthur Est, amid a row of trendy looking restaurants and shops, at first glance O.Noir appears ordinary. Charming wood-topped tables and minimalist place settings mark a quaint front patio, and a warm soft

glow frames the pathway for the hostess to seat her tables; however, it is at this point that O.Noir diverts from the norm—the lobby is the only lit space in the entire restaurant. After selecting from a vague-sounding menu, customers are escorted to the pitch black dining hall where they can enjoy their meals without the hassle, or benefit, of sight.

Total darkness is surprisingly terrifying, and the waiting staff is en-

dearingly sensitive to this, preparing their diners for the adventure with patience and ease. The restaurant offers simple salmon and scallop meals for traditionalists, and mystery courses for the spontaneous; regardless, the suspense of eating before seeing is thrilling. As customers order, tension bubbles, rising to a boil with the return of a menu. The hostess introduces the dinner party to their waiter for the evening with

intense intimacy, for this person will be more than a server, but also a tour guide, a point of reference.

“Our clients bond with our waiters because in the dark they depend on them,” explained manager Alejandro Martinez. “The connection is stronger than any other restaurant.”

The waiting staff is friendly and sweet; our server Sophie anticipated our excitement and made eye contact with each and everyone of us—it

took a couple seconds to remember that Sophie, like all of O.Noir’s servers, is blind. This reminder creates a moment of tension. Sophie, however, was very comfortable with leading through unexplored terrain; it became clear that O.Noir is not about managing with limited senses, but about playing with the heightened ones that compensate for the loss of sight.

Continued on pg. 13

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NEWS SSMU to close club offices this month in space reallocation

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Fourth floor to include bookable spaces, more storage for clubs Aislinn Kalob News Editor Continued from page one McGill Students for UNICEF is among the clubs who will no longer have an office. Maud Schram, co-president of this club, was informed of the change by Bialik in late August. Club members hope the new arrangement will be enough to accommodate all of what they previously had stored in their office.

“We never hold meetings within the office anyway—we always have Lev Bukhman,” Schram said. “Realistically, we don’t need an office. The only time that we use an office is for office hours.

We’re just going to take the locker, because that’s what we need. But we do have a lot of stuff, so hopefully [SSMU] can accommodate clubs that need smaller lockers, versus clubs that need a lot of room.”

Genevieve Riccoboni, president of the McGill Debating Un-

ion echoed this sentiment.

“Moving forward, [it] won’t really be a problem for us, as we largely use our office for storage and small meetings — and those things we can still do with the new arrangement,” Riccoboni said.

“This past year we had a shared office anyway, so it was less private.”

According to Bialik, 60 per cent of SSMU clubs filled out a survey on space put out by SSMU Clubs and Services at the end of last semester, and identified the need for increased storage as a major concern. Nevertheless, Riccoboni stated that she felt that the change in space reallocation came suddenly.

“It would definitely have been nice if clubs were consulted about it,” said Riccoboni. “I feel like it [...] would have been good to know about it a bit more in advance.”

Certain clubs will be keeping their offices in order to continue to serve students. This includes the

McGill Outdoors Club, Walksafe, Drivesafe, Queer McGill, the Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), and the McGill University Photography Students Society (MUPSS), whose offices are classified as specialized spaces.

“Services operate their spaces very differently from clubs,” Bialik explained. “Services have very regularly-staffed office hours, most of them are open as lounges; they have lending libraries in them, so they’re just completely different from how club offices [operate]. So all the services are maintaining their offices, and it’s just the club offices that are being transitioned into more generalizable club space.”

All clubs with an office on the fourth floor have been given a deadline of Thanksgiving weekend to completely vacate their offices, so that the space can be fully converted into storage and bookable meeting rooms.

Clubs will no longer have space on the fourth floor(Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

SSMU, CKUT host Federal election candidates debate Candidates discuss education, the environment, and the economy Nick Milium Contributor On Sept. 30, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and CKUT hosted a debate between six candidates running to be members of parliament in the upcoming federal election.

Rachel Bendayan represented the Liberal Party of Canada from the Outremont riding, Daniel Green the Green Party from the VilleMarie­— Le Sud-Ouest—Île-desSœurs riding, Rodolphe Husny the Conservatives from the Outremont riding and Simon Marchand the Bloc Quebecois from the Hochelaga riding. Also present were William Sloan of the Communist Party, and Allison Turner of the New Democratic Party (NDP) who are running in the Ville-Marie riding. The debate focused on three main topics: Education, environment, and economy.

During the education portion of the debate, Turner was quick to inform the listeners about her party’s views on student employment.

“A large number of students end up graduating with a huge debt,” Turner said. “What the NDP wants to do in order to alleviate the plight of that debt is not to have students walk into a society where there are [...] few paying jobs [...] but to invest in

Local federal election candidates debate in the SSMU Balllroom(L-A Benoit / McGill Tribune) creating 40,000 jobs for students in the coming years.”

Following Turner, Bendayan presented her party’s policy on the same issue.

“The Liberal Party of Canada is going to invest $1.3 billion over three years […] in order to create jobs for young Canadians,” Bendayan said. “I think that’s important because you should stay in Montreal if you want to stay in Montreal; you should stay in Canada if you want to stay in Canada, and there should be good paying jobs for you.”

The debate moved on to environmental issues, which Green

spoke about at length.

“One thing that the Green Party really stands for is to reinvest in science,” Green said.

“The Harper government has disinvested in science, specifically in environmental sciences. We need more money to be invested in research to really understand what climate change and environmental upheaval will do to Canada.”

Sloan added to the discussion on the environment, showcasing his party’s stance.

“We have to go away from the oil and the gas and the coal,” said Sloan. “We have to go to renewable energies [....] Capital-

ism will never be able to solve the problems that we have with the environment, so we have to make a radical change.”

The final topic of the debates was the economy, a topic which Husny was vocal on.

“When you’re going to get out of [McGill], you’re either going to start your own company, work for a small-medium size enterprise [SME] or a large corporation if you don’t choose the public sector,” Husny said.

“We’re lowering taxes for SMEs, cutting red tape, because SMEs need to grow. We are not going to raise taxes on big corporations, because big corporations

are going to affect our capacity to actually attract investment in Canada.”

Marchand expressed disspaointment at the government’s continued emphasis on military spending.

“I’m just sad that nobody here committed to stop investing in the military [...] and I think it’s very disappointing to see that,” said Marchand. “We could make a difference that could be positive in our society by not paying billions and billions of dollars for boats or for planes when this money could be invested in our education system.”

NEWS

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

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AGSEM ratifies McGill’s Global Offer of Settlement at GA catherine Wang Contributor The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) voted at a General Assembly (GA) on Wednesday to ratify the Global Offer of Settlement from McGill. The vote passed 172 to 101. The decision brings to a close a negotiating process that has been ongoing since the expiration of the last agreement on June 30, 2014.

Guilia Alberini, the AGSEM teacher’s assistant (TA) bargaining chair, explained that although negotiations were handled by a bargaining committee within AGSEM, it was the organization’s members who decided to accept the offer, rather than reject it in favour of a strike.

“The bargaining committee [was] not making a recommendation to members to vote either against or for the final offer,” Alberini said. “We do not believe that McGill’s final offer addresses many of the concerns of our members expressed throughout the year, above all the issue of TA hours [....] However, voting against the agreement means we must vote in favour of a strike. Therefore, we believe members have the right to be well-informed and make their own decision regarding a possible strike.”

On Sept. 1, McGill submitted its final Global Offer of Settlement to AGSEM, which included improvements on harassment protections and griev-

ance procedures, as well as a retroactive wage increase of nine per cent over four years. According to Alberini, one demand that remained unaddressed in the final offer was TA to student ratios.

“In the last eight years, TA hours have remained completely the same [...] while undergraduate student enrolment has been increasing every year,” Alberini said. “We wanted to index TA hours to undergraduate enrolment, and have some upper limits on how many students were assigned to each TA [....]

McGill did not want to discuss any of these issues.”

TAs who were in favour of rejecting the offer and initiating a strike vote raised points about the longer term implications of the agreement, and expressed concerns about how these implications might affect the quality of their work at McGill. Claire McLeish, a TA in musicology, specifically addressed the decline in the ratio of TA hours to student enrolment as an important issue.

“If we accept this agreement, we are basically voting for a decline in the quality of education [...] and a decline in the quality of TAships,” McLeish said.

“I [want to decline the offer] not just for us, but for the students.”

Trevor Leach, a TA in the Department of Political Science, felt the agreement was satisfactory, given past bargaining results.

“I think if you consider McGill’s

position on most of these issues, and what we’ve gotten from them, we’ve done pretty well for ourselves,” Leach said. “There’s a lot of austerity in Quebec [...but] despite this, we got the raise [....] It’s not much, but at least it’s tied to inflation. There’s always room for future negotiations [...but] I’m pretty happy with this deal.”

The AGSEM bargaining committee is currently in the process of meeting with McGill’s negotiating team to finalize the new deal, AGSEM President Justin Irwin explained.

“We are going to be in contact to set up a meeting during which we can make all the appropriate final steps to sign off and make this official,” said Irwin, “It won’t be by the end of the week, but it won’t be too long after that. It will be [...] as soon as we can get all the principals in the room to sign off.”

The final deal will be a four-year contract retroactive from 2014, in place until June 2018. Although bargaining for the TA agreement has finished, Irwin explained that the union still has further work to do.

“This long process has come to an end for TAs,” Irwin said. “However, AGSEM also represents the several hundred invigilators at McGill, and that negotiation process is ongoing. Going forward, that process will be a strong focus of our activities.”

SSMU, Anti-Austerity McGill stand in solidarity with Quebec teacher’s unions 34,000 supporters protest against austerity measures of Quebec government Alexia Martel-DesJardins Contributor On Sept. 30, around 34,000 supporters of the Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement (FAE) protested austerity measures imposed by the Quebec government by marching to Square Victoria. The FAE represents eight teachers’ unions, and encompasses teachers from elementary and high schools in Montreal and its surrounding region.

The 2015-2016 provincial budget saw a reduction in education spending of $76 million. Of that, $45 million has been taken from school boards across the province and $21 million from the CEGEP system.

A McGill contingent to the FAE joined the protest in a show of solidarity with the striking teachers. The McGill contingent was organized by students from different on-campus groups, including the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and Anti-Austerity McGill. The latter is a recently-formed student group, explained member Adam McKenzie. “[Anti-Austerity McGill] is a relatively new group, formed at AntiAusterity Week at McGill,” McKenzie

said. “[The group aims] to promote the anti-austerity movement at McGill and [...] raise awareness.”

SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Affairs Emily Boytnick explained that increasing awareness about asuterity on campus is important given the effect it has had on the McGill community.

“Certainly austerity affected McGill students,” Boytinck said. “More jobs [on campus] are becoming very precarious. We’ve also seen loss of TA hours [and] loss of classes in the Arts faculty.”

Additionally Boytinck highlighted the effect of budget cuts on communities outside of McGill.

“McGill is just really getting the tip of the iceberg, and it is honestly the children in the school system who are suffering,” Boytinck said. “Which is why the FAE is going on strike today, and [why] we want to stand in solidarity.”

Last spring, the FAE voted to hold three days of strike, beginning on September 30, 2015. Danielle Pelletier, a kindergarten teacher at Ecole BeauSéjour Edifice Nord who attended the protest, said there will be more strikes in

the future.

“There are no other dates that have been determined for the other strike days; however, they should take place before the end of October,” Pelletier said. “The services offered to students have decreased [a] lot […] and now the government wants to increase Teachers gather to protest austerity measures (Alexia Martel-Desjardins / McGill Tribune) class ratios and to union from the school board Commis- more positive conclusion. remove quotas on [students].”

“We hope to reach an agreement, Schoolchildren are assigned a sion scolaire de la Pointe de l’Île who quota of one, two, or three. A child with attended the protest. Charron expressed and that the government will offer to the a quota of two needs the attention and his disappointment regarding the bidget children of the next generation the conditions that we have had the privilege to help equivalent to that of two students, cuts imposed by the government.

“There is a collective labour agree- experience,” Charron said. and the same proportions apply for chilAnti-Austerity McGill is planning ment that is being renewed at the modren assigned a quota of three.

“If there are students with special ment,” Charron explained. “[For a year to participate in upcoming protests and needs [...] we try to make up for every- now] there have been at least 50 meet- events.

“There [was] another one on thing but, at some point it gets very dif- ings between the FAE and the government, and there has been absolutely no Oct. 3 with the public sector workers,” ficult,” said Pelletier.

Mackenzie said. “We are basically tryFrançois Charron is a music teach- progress.”

The protesters hope that the march ing to go to every one we can.” er at École Des Roseraies and École Albatros and member of the teachers’ will help to bring the negotiations to a

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NEWS

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

SSMU VP INTERNAL LOLA BARALDI HAS RESIGNED, CITING PERSONAL REASONS Council calls by-election to fill position Shrinkhala Dawadi Managing Editor Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) Internal Lola Baraldi resigned from her position last Thursday.

Kareem Ibrahim, SSMU president, elaborated on Baraldi’s resignation. “[Baraldi is] resigning due to personal reasons,” Ibrahim said.

“It definitely brings us great sadness to see her leave. She’s been a great member of the team. ” According to Ibrahim, Baraldi’s portfolio will be delegated among the remaining SSMU executives as well as permanent staff.

“The large majority of the VP Internal’s tasks are going to be delegated to the VP External, Emily Boytinck, and the VP University Affairs, Chloe Rourke.”

Ibrahim said. “This includes 4Floors, and the Francophone Affairs [Committee] going to [Boytinck]. The yearbook fee, the website overhaul, and the

student engagement committee going to [Rourke]. We also hope to consult the […] primary staff of the VP Internal regarding what they would like in terms of increased resources and support, be that an additional staff member or increased hours.”

Other tasks, such as management of the SSMU listserv and social media accounts, as well as chairing the Student Engagement Committee, will be delegated to Kimber Bialik, VP Clubs and Services.

Baraldi’s resignation comes two months after the resignation of former general manager Jennifer Varkonyi, who resigned in August, also due to personal circumstances. Ibrahim spoke to the increased workload that SSMU employees face in light of these personnel changes.

“The delegation of the responsibilities from these two roles is evidently going to pose a great challenge to the executives,” Ibrahim said. “We had come into this year very ambi-

tious, very keen, with a lot of ideas […] and a lot of those projects are going to evidently fall to the backburner […] because we’re going to be hiring and training a new general manager [and] we’re also dealing with the loss of an executive.”

Ibrahim continued to highlight certain aspects of his portfolio that will be affected by the resignations.

“I wanted to implement an employment equity policy at SSMU, [...] implement an optin consultation listserv, [and...] work with the VP [University Affairs] on some equity programming,” Ibrahim said. “I personally will be doing my best to plan in advance and delegate, so a lot of the ideas I have can actually be realized this year [….] We’re definitely doing all the contingency planning available to make sure our team is supported, and our output to students remains consistent.”

Ibrahim stressed that SSMU will continue to prioritize certain

projects such as the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill and the SSMU Daycare Centre, which hasn’t had a director for six months.

“MoA negotiations [with McGill] are beginning this year and that’s not something that we can ignore,” he said. “Lease negotiations for the SSMU daycare centre are beginning this year [….] In terms of the executive team as a whole, other priorities include ensuring that our […] student-run cafeteria continues to run efficiently.”

Going forward, SSMU will continue to face personnel challenges.

“Our building director is going to be leaving on paternity leave soon, any time this week […] until January,” Ibrahim said.

“That will involve delegation of tasks as well—giving more responsibilities to our food and beverage director and our security manager.”

Tasks that used to fall under the job description of the gen-

eral manager will be delegated to SSMU executives until a new general manager is hired. Among these are staff managment, building operations, human resources, and management of the daycare centre.

The comptroller, will serve as Interim Finance Officer advising SSMU executives in financial matters, such as budgeting.

Ibrahim stressed that SSMU would continue to consult with students during these transition periods.

“We hope that the typical roadblocks that our team would face during the year due to poor communications with the student body […] can be minimized through consistent contact and good consultation so that we can really just focus on the challenges we have at hand,” Ibrahim explained.

SSMU Legislative Council called a by-election on Thursday evening to fill the position. The new VP Internal will be in office from Jan. 1 to May 31, 2016.

SSMU Council discusses resignations of VP Internal, general manager Introduces $180 million library renovation plan Calvin Trottier-Chi Contributor The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Council met on Oct. 1 to discuss motions regarding improvments to student life, the resignation of vice-president (VP) Internal Affairs Lola Baraldi, and student engagement in politics on campus.

Resignations of executive positions The loss of general manager Jennifer Varkonyi in August is now coupled with Baraldi’s resignation, whcih came hours before the SSMU Council meeting.

According to SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim, Baraldi intends to finish a full report on Frosh, ending on a relatively high note as this year’s Frosh received the highest satisfaction rate from the student body in recent years at 4.1 out of 5.

The other responsibilities of the VP Internal Affairs are being delegated throughout the executive. SSMU VP External Affairs, Emily Boytinck expressed concern about these additional responsibilities.

“I think we all are very aware of what this will entail for the rest of this semester,” Boytinck said. “I think we all know this se-

mester will be particularly time intensive and perhaps stressful, but that is the life of a student executive.”

Council also passed a motion to condemn the undemocratic appointment of a new Interim Senior Director of Student Services by Ollivier Dyens. The motion came in the wake of accusations of failure to consult students, faculty, staff, and the advisory committee for the selection of the senior director of student services.

Library renovation and access In her report to Council, Rourke introduced the McLennan-Redpath Library’s $180 million renovation plan, which will begin with student consultation. “[The] goal is to make [the McLennan-Redpath Library complex] more of a student center, to drastically increase study spaces on campus,” Rourke said.

“It would be extremely exciting to see this happen it would address a lot of the needs that students have.”

The source of funding for the renovation is uncertain as of now, as the project is still in the early planning stages.

“The money will have to come from somewhere, and li-

braries are looking at every option in terms of how they could possibly find the money to fund it,” Rourke said.

With regards to the restrictive library access imposed by law students during exams last April, the Law Students’ Association (LSA) proposed a twoweek restriction instead of three. This restriction would only occur for VP External Emily Boytinck addresses council (Lauren Benson-Armer / McGill Tribune) regular service hours. Interim Arts Representa- Motion to adopt a change through our roles of executive Kat Svikhnushin raised contives at McGill,” Boytinck said. climate change policy cerns over the continued restricThe policy will guide SSMU tion of access, which resulted in Boytinck presented the new cli- in reducing its carbon footprint, the decision to delay the straw mate change policy, amended from participating in ethical business poll until after councillors could last year, which was drafted with partnerships, and working to eduspeak with their constituents. the help of the Engineering Under- cate the McGill community on is“It is a very dangerous prec- graduate Society (EUS) over this sues of climate justice. edent to start setting, that cer- past summer. The policy is clearer “Climate change affects the tain faculties have say over their in its execution to reduce green- three major dimensions of susown library,” Svikhnushin said. house gas emissions and partern- tainability: social, economic and “Everyone at McGill’s tight on ing with sustainability-oriented environmental,” stated the notice space; everyone at McGill’s writ- groups. of motion to adopt the policy. ing [...] exams.” “[We’ve] talked a lot over dif- “As a champion of sustainability, ferent rules in regards to climate the SSMU has a responsibility to change and combating climate combat [it].”

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editorial

Reimagining SSMU to ensure future sustainability In the past six months, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has been without the director of its daycare program, faced the resignation of its recently-hired general manager, and most recently witnessed the resignation of the vice-president (VP) Internal. Soon, SSMU’s building manager will be going on paternity leave. This amount of turnover is an anomaly, and indicates the need for concrete provisions to handle vacancies.

As SSMU works to cover these responsibilities and hire replacements, it must learn from this experience and work to ensure that there are contingency plans in the future to mitigate the impact of resignations.

SSMU provides a wide range of services, from long-term needs including the representation of students’ interests to the university and the funding for student-run clubs, to the development of short-term portfolios of each year’s executive team.

Institutional memory is therefore critical. While the previous general manager, Pauline Gervais, held her position for 12 years, the new hire, Jennifer Varkonyi, resigned in August after just six

COMMENTARY

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TPS Board of Directors

Sam Pinto, Mayaz Alam, Maryse Thomas, Nicolas Tuech, Luka Ciklovan, Adrien Hu, Chloe Nevitt, Mingye Chen

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Daniel Braz, Aufrey Carleton, Ariella Garmaise, Evelyn Goessling, Emma Hameau, Ariella Garmaise, Greta Hoaken, ambeerr Hord Nick Jasinski, Daniel Lutes, Alexia Martel-Desjardins, Nick Milum, Stephanie Ngo, Malaya Powers, Alessandra Puopolo, Aaron Rose, Jacob Schweda, Maxime Scraire, Wanlin Song, Nicole Spadotto, Marina Sulmona, Calvin Torttier-Chii, Nico Wada, Andy Wang, Catherine Wang,Liz Willcock

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5

OPINION

Tuesday,October 6, 2015

Alessandra puopulo Contributor Given that McGill is currently in a dire financial situation, it is surprising that the administration has not taken a firm stance against austerity. The university has projected that its accumulated deficit will rise to $96.3 million by the end of 2016. McGill’s funding problems are largely due to the reduction in funds by the provincial government, which in attempts to balance its budget, has cut millions

months. It is important that essential duties do not fall through the cracks, but it should not be at the expense of the executives’ portfolios. As permanent staff resign, go on leave, or inevitably move to different companies, it becomes more difficult for remaining staff to fill in for those positions in addition to their own responsibilities.

The VP Internal portfolio will be divided between VP External Emily Boytinck, VP Clubs & Services Kimber Bialik, and VP University Affairs Chloe Rourke until a new VP Internal is elected, who will have a term that will last from Jan. 1 to May 31, 2016. As a result, the already large workloads of the executives are further increased, making it difficult for them to work on their individual projects. Regardless of who resigns, it should not be such a burden to the remaining executives.

The current strategy of reallocating work as resignations occur is clearly not sustainable when this many positions are in transition. There must be a procedure for appointing an interim executive or general manager so that executives, whose terms

only last for one year, do not have to abandon initiatives that they campaigned on.

In the short term, SSMU has

“

The legacy of this year’s executive should be to ensure that future generations do not have to weather a similar storm.

no choice but to mitigate the effects of the high turnover. To reduce the enormous workload of executives, more student positions can be created in each ex-

ecutive office to take on the administrative busy work. This will allow executives to dedicate more time to their portfolios. Existing staff members can be trained to take on more responsibilities on an interim basis in the case of resignations. A new executive position that can take on parts of each executive’s portfolio would also reduce their current responsibilities. The discussion must be opened on where current executive portfolios overlap or have similarities, and those facets should be combined under a new position. Such measures will be beneficial even in stable times, as it increases the amount of time and resources that executives can devote to their positions and reducing stress. SSMU members should support the executives in establishing and funding new roles.

It is a given that SSMU’s first priority should be finding staff to fill the open positions, but the changes that are made to address the current gaps need to go further. The legacy of this year’s executive should be to ensure that future generations do not have to weather a similar storm.

McGill administration’s response to austerity falls short of dollars from public spending.

McGill’s stance on austerity has been described by McGill’s Teaching Support Union (AGSEM) President Justin Irwin as one of “happy acquiescence.” While the university has not openly supported the province’s decrease in funding, it has done little to condemn it. The administration has almost taken a sympathetic tone when discussing the Quebec government’s economic woes, and has adopted a mantra of ‘grin and bear it.’ While the provincial government has promised a balanced budget, this should not come at such a high cost to social services—including education.

In the past year, thousands of students and public service workers have taken to the streets to protest the government’s reduced spending plan. Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has condemned the austerity measures and even held a week to

raise awareness of the issue. While student unions have traditionally discussed such issues with the government, given the current hurdles facing provincial federations, the university must take a stand in its place.

The administration could be hoping to weather this storm as quickly and as quietly as possible so as not to harm the university’s reputation. Publicizing McGill’s financial problems could deter potential students from attending the university; applicants may believe that McGill struggles to meets its students’ academic needs. Additionally, taking an openly antiausterity position may agitate the provincial government and result in further funding cuts in coming years. Regardless, McGill’s silence comes at a great expense to current students who have to suffer through the effects of the budget cuts.

McGill used to be the highest

ranked institution in Canada, which in recent years, has seen its ranking in international reports drop. Due to a lack of funds, the university has imposed a hiring freeze for administrative and support staff, postponed all non-essential equipment purchases, and stopped all non-emergency, unplanned funding allocations. Rather than creating new programs for students, the university is struggling to maintain old ones. While McGill has tried to maintain an optimistic tone in its budget proposals, and has reiterated how it remains committed to staying a competitive institution with the best professors and staff, there are clear indicators that the university is struggling to meet its commitments. For McGill to reclaim its position in the global academic field, it must take a strong stance against the provincial government’s austerity measures, and call for funding to return to preausterity levels.

ERRATA: A story in Volume 35, Issue 4 - “Behind the bench: Just don’t let it be a tie” incorrectly stated that Eric Staal and Brad Fast played their first and last games on April 4, 2004. In fact, it was Staal’s first game and Fast’s last game.

A story in Volume 35, Issue 3 - “Ten-billion-year-old galaxy cluster discovered” incorrectly stated that the galaxy cluster was 10 billion light-years-old. In fact it is not.

The Tribune regrets these errors.

6

Opinion

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

C A M P US C O N VERS A T I O N Campus groups weigh in: What will your party do to promote student issues?

by Malaya Powers & Jacob Schweda, Greta Hoaken, and Daniel Braz Visit where and how to vote at elections.ca.

(Daniel Lutes / McGill Tribune)

N D P M c Gi l l The New Democratic Party (NDP)—the most gender-balanced party running in this election and with the youngest group of MPs in Parliament—has youth issues at its core.

If elected, an NDP government will eliminate interest on student loans and create 74,000 new non-repayable grants for students in need. The NDP also promises to combine this with a crackdown on unpaid internships to prevent the exploitation of youth workers. Work deserves to be paid with a salary. Experience and a reference letter are great, but they don’t pay the rent. McGill students might remember a similar initiative championed by NDP McGill last year, focusing on

Li b e r a l M c g i l l It is rare and valuable when a party, a leader, and a platform seek to engage realistically in youth and student issues—not merely pay lip service to them, or tokenize their advocates. Youth issues are represented very clearly in Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada’s platform.

Youth employment is a fundamental component of the Liberal platform. The youth unemployment rate is currently 13.1 per cent—almost double the national average.

This has led to about 170,000 less young people in the workforce than prior to the 2008 recession. As stu-

C O n s e r v ati v e m c g i l l There’s a popular misconception that Conservatives do not care about student issues, but this could not be further from the truth. The Conservative Party of Canada’s approach to dealing with student issues is much different than that of the other parties, because it sees students as individual, unique people with their own hopes and aspirations for the future instead of a monolithic voting bloc that can be satiated with lip service and handouts. The goal for tackling student issues, if the Conservatives remain in power this October, is to ensure that when future

stricter rules for unpaid internships at McGill, as well as at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

Four McGill students were elected to Parliament for the NDP in the last election, and they have helped keep students’ priorities front and centre.

The NDP, if elected, will phase in a $15 federal minimum wage, bringing those working in federally regulated industries closer to a living salary since the elimination of the federal minimum wage by the Liberals in 1996. A similar $15 minimum wage is being implemented now by Alberta’s new NDP government, and will be fully in place by 2018.

In addition, an NDP government will invest $100 million to improve youth mental health in Canada, an

issue that is reaching crisis levels.

The NDP would create 40,000 paid internships and jobs for young people by requiring large federal infrastructure projects to take on paid apprentices. The NDP would also work directly with the private sector and municipalities to make sure a diverse set of jobs are available for students and recent graduates.

To complement jobs, Tom Mulcair’s NDP have promised to help cities build 10,000 new affordable housing units. The NDP recognizes that safe and affordable housing is a right, not a privilege, and will work to undo the damage to our social housing that has happened since the previous Liberal government eliminated the Canadian National Housing Strategy.

Two NDP initiatives aim to assist student health. The first is more affordable prescription drugs through bulk buying, a program that is much needed to complete our universal healthcare system. The second is improved access to Employment Insurance (EI).

If students work, they pay into EI, but chances are that they, like 60 per cent of Canadian workers, can’t access it if they lose their job. The NDP will expand access to EI so that it continues to be a safety net for all workers who are temporarily unemployed.

Finally, students play a key role in tackling climate change as it remains one of the greatest threats to the youth generation. Students on this campus and from around the world are demanding immediate action. An NDP

government will fight catastrophic climate change that endangers all of our futures by setting specific greenhouse gas reduction targets and meeting them through a Canada-wide cap and trade system, a plan praised by environmental groups. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have set concrete targets.

The NDP made history in Canada by electing the youngest caucus with the most female MPs in history. With McGill’s help, the NDP will break that record again and bring youth voices and youth issues to Ottawa.

Learn more about the NDP campaign at NDP.ca.

dents ourselves, we are constantly looking ahead to our life after McGill, and want to see a job market that is open to embrace us when we graduate and seek employment.

Trudeau’s plan for youth employment promises 120,000 new opportunities in the first three years— three times more jobs than those promised by the NDP. This plan’s quantitative measurement, unlike initiatives introduced by other parties in this election, does not end with a number of jobs promised or specific budget funding allotted. Trudeau has committed to invest $300 million annually in a renewed youth employment strategy that will ensure this

promise is met.

If elected, Trudeau has alsopledged to increase the number of jobs funded by the Canada Summer Jobs program, and invest $40 million annually to create more co-op placements for students. A cumulative $1.5 billion will be invested in youth employment through this strategy.

The Liberals understand the importance of investing in our country as a whole and fostering economic partnerships across provinces. This is why the party’s platform has designated $25 million annually for a youth services program that would send young people across the country to gain work experience. The platform will increase the

number of federally funded jobs under the Canada Summer Jobs program to 35,000.

Trudeau and his team also understand that economic and environmental prosperity go hand in hand. This is why he has promised to create an additional 5000 jobs for young people as guides and interpreters at Parks Canada.

Although not specifically targeted at youth, the Liberal tax plan is important for students to consider, as we in the coming years, will begin working, paying taxes, and potentially having families of our own. The plan, in essence, will cut taxes for the middle class, and instead shift the burden to the wealthiest

individuals in our society.

Unlike the Conservative Party of Canada, Liberals also understand that while the economy is of extreme importance, it is not the only issue Canadians care about. Democratic reform—for which Team Trudeau has a 32-point “Real Change” plan—is an issue that students are particularly interested in. “We need to know that when we cast a ballot, it counts, that when we vote, it matters,” Trudeau said at the unveiling of this platform policy, Learn more about the Liberal campaign at liberal.ca.

students graduate, they will be able to enter the working world quickly and have a prosperous future to look forward to.

The Conservative Party’s priorities will be to encourage economic growth by keeping taxes low. This will encourage job creators to remain in Canada and to open up new job opportunities for students who are fresh out of university, and also preserve Canadian jobs that already exist for the next generation. The Conservative Party would also allow students who are working to put more money in their Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs)—something the other parties promise to undo. This is essen-

tial in order to allow students to save more money and provide them with the beginnings of a financially secure future going ahead in their lives.

The Conservative Party of Canada is also thinking farther ahead than just the immediate future by having Prime Minister Stephen Harper announce a plan to encourage home ownership for an additional 700,000 Canadians by the year 2020.

Although this may seem far off to some, recent graduates will be able to benefit from this plan. Many young people concerned about their ability to become financially independent in the years following graduation should see this as a great opportu-

nity—including McGillians.

The Conservative Party believes that it is the only party that has a concrete plan to assist students in meaningful, positive ways. The Conservative Party have a proven track record of steady economic management, low taxes, and investment in the individual.

The Conservative plan will get college graduates out of their parents’ homes and into the workforce faster and in larger numbers than the other parties. It will ensure that graduates don’t become stuck waiting for their chance to gain independence by investing in students’ futures. The potential result if Canadians choose not

to re-elect a Conservative government is one of job-killing taxes, lower takehome pay, deficit spending sprees, and increasing debt levels.

This is a watershed election and students have an important role to play in deciding their own future.

They can support short-term investment at the cost of increased debt and interest payments in the future, or they can support a party with a longterm plan for the future.

Learn more about the conservative campaign at conservative.ca.

By Malaya Powers and Jacob Schweda, Co-Presidents, NDP McGill

By Greta Hoaken, Liberal McGill.

By Daniel Braz, Principal Secretary of the Conservative Association of McGill University

7

Arts & Entertainment

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

PERFORMANCE REVIEW Disturbing, wild, and Free Evelyn Goessling Contributor Featuring an abandoned apartment building, a mysteriously vacant concert hall, and a trash-filled pavilion, André Fortino’s video triptych, Hôtel Formes Sauvages is a journey into the manic, startling, and often disturbing world of performance art. The exhibition— held at the Fonderie Darling’s Gallery in Cité Multimedia—is Fortino’s first show in North America. The main hall is an industrial-style warehouse, featuring exposed piping high above the audience’s head and a vast brick wall on the far end of the room. On the largest wall were three massive projection screens showing the videos.

The video triptych consisted of three side-by-side screens. The leftmost screen showed footage of an improvised performance, Hôtel Dieu (2009), in which Fortino, dressed in a rubber pig mask, explores a series of abandoned sites and interacts with the objects found in each space. In the first scene, he drags a bag of yarn into an abandoned room in an apartment building and proceeds to entangle himself in the yarn. On the right-most

screen there was Les Paradis Sauvages (2012). While different, the two videos obviously echo each other in theme and visual qualities. While Fortino covers himself in yarn, in the other video, he stands in a field and frantically tapes wooden mannequin limbs to his extremities. Simultaneously, the artist in both videos attempts to leave, only to find that these objects obstruct his path.

This is just one example of the recurring similarities that permeate both videos. In each, the artist encounters objects and interacts with and manipulates them in ways that are often startling or disturbing. In another scene, the artist in a pig mask drags mannequin heads around a room, arranging them in a sort of violent, organized chaos.

Meanwhile, on the other video screen, the artist roughly drags the limp figures of fellow artists and places them seemingly randomly in an empty warehouse.

The third component of the triptych was shown on the centre screen. The video was a recording of a dance piece, “Le Corps des Formes Live,” developed with choreographer Katharina Christl. While the other two videos are complex, and at some

Fortino’s Hôtel Formes Sauvages showcases the highlights and limitations of performance art (fonderiedarling.org) points manic in both their audio and video, the dance piece is relatively calm. The inclusion of this video eases the somewhat disturbing nature of parts of the other films by grounding the audience in a more familiar realm of performance art.

The choreography piece is a filmed version of a live performance

by Fortino. While the live and recorded versions were almost entirely the same in content, Fortino’s presence for the performance put the entire exhibition in the context of the artist’s energy, which made it much easier to appreciate the other videos. In the live performance, Fortino contrasted stiffness and explosive movement by leaping up and down excitedly, running at full speed then coming to a sudden stop, and staying still for minutes on

end, often twisted into unnatural shapes.

Fortino used the entire gallery space for his performance, including intimate interactions with the walls and floor (at one point he spent several moments licking one gallery wall). Meanwhile, the only soundtrack was his heavy breathing, although it was uncertain if this was exaggerated due to the movement, or a natural product of the performance.

The exhibition was unclear as to whether the artist was actually utilizing cinematography as a medium or simply as a recording of his performances. Just as videos of Marina Abramovic and Joseph Beuys’ famed performances are less than the real thing, it seems unusual and less effective for a Fortino to exhibit videos of an improvised performance.

Viewing the video triptych as an object

of art itself resolves this issue, although the inclusion of the performance made this point confusing.

Fortino’s endeavours into video for Hôtel Formes Sauvages were not always effective. Had the live performance not occurred prior to the videos, the energy and commitment that was obvious in the performance may have gone by unnoticed. Not only did the exhibition feel inconclusive, but it was difficult to decipher what questions, if any, were raised. The interaction of the artist with various found objects was far too disparate to be seen as one metaphor, and other than the aesthetic style, there wasn’t much connection between the videos and the Fortino’s performance. The exhibition was exciting in its visual qualities, but lacking in relatable substance.

Past vs.

Present Pinning Down the butterfly Puccini’s Madama Butterfly vs. Weezer’s Pinkerton

Maxime Scraire Contributor “Tired of Sex” is the first song of Weezer’s 1996 cult classic Pinkerton and is possibly one the most thrilling album openers of all time. Featuring drummer Patrick Wilson’s salvage stomping—which alone has almost enough power to excuse the band’s latest 15 years of generic pop music— and lead-singer Rivers Cuomo’s terrified screaming of a sex-agenda over distorted guitar feedback, the track is as hysterical as it sounds. It may come as a startling introduction for an LP that shares its name with a character of Giacomo Puccini’s celebrated opera, Madama Butterfly

groupier e l a t e d adventures that left Cuomo deeply disillusioned Madama Butterfly awaits the return of her husband (brightcove.com) by celebrity.

Pinkerton acts (which recently wrapped up its run at as an account of those troublesome Place des Arts), but listening beyond times, showing the singer lost in the genre stereotypes and preconceptions, midst of conflicting feelings towards similitudes between the works abound. women, love, and settling down.

In his diary, Cuomo talked about Unlike the opera, where the young girl the opera’s central character, B. serves as the main character, Cuomo F. Pinkerton, describing him as an has his “Pinkerton character” as the “asshole American sailor similar to centre of attention, acting more as an a touring rock star.” The man cruises anti-hero than a villain.

Nonetheless, both works examine from one continent to another in a quest for pleasures, selfishly marrying relationships from the same extremely a hopeful 15-year-old Japanese girl childish point of view. The opera before leaving her, never to return, displays its titular Madama Butterfly despite promising her that he would. as ever hopeful, trusting her lover’s Following the success of the Blue word so much that she waits three Album and its mega-hit “Buddy Holly,” years for him to come back. Like Weezer jumped into the rock’n’roll many passionate teenaged lovers, lifestyle, similarly travelling the world she repeatedly claims that she would in an endless search for meaningless, kill herself if her husband didn’t

return. As for Cuomo, he rejects all responsibilities for his bad behaviour, and instead spends most of the album’s length walking the tightrope of hormonal confusion and adolescent misogyny. Moreover, he selfishly refuses to accept that a woman would do to him what he has done to her, and awkwardly stalks a girl without her even being aware of his existence.

Pinkerton’s lyrical rawness is the principal reason why it received such an overwhelmingly poor reception from both the public and critics when it first came out. Cuomo sings so openly about his most intimate feelings that awkwardness on behalf of the listener was inevitable, especially when he wonders out loud how one of his groupies touches herself at night in the middle of “Across the Sea,” or when he acknowledges in “No Other One” that he would drop his girlfriend at any moment if he knew he could get anyone else.

Puccini’s opera also showcases its hero acting in an uncomfortably crude

and direct fashion. More than once, Butterfly threatens to kill secondary characters with a knife for suggesting that B. F. Pinkerton may never come back to her, and spends an unhealthy amount of time explaining to her twoyear-old child that it is not his fault that she is about to commit suicide.

The two works conclude on the same note, with Pinkerton lying down crying next to the lifeless body of Butterfly, who ended up slicing her throat after meeting her husband’s new wife, and Cuomo shakily whispering “I’m sorry” to the girls he hurt by doing “what [his] body told [him] to.”

With Pinkerton, Cuomo has written the perfect reinterpretation: An album that channels specific events and themes of its original source of inspiration while also being deeply personal. Almost 20 years after its release, it stands as one of the most singular albums of all time, a masterpiece that might prove itself just as timely as the opera it’s based on.

Integrating services in cyberspace to meet student needs

E

EMILY YUNG MSc Psychiatry

(Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

Today, she is McGill’s Mental Health Education Coordinator and also the project manager of McGill Mental Health Service’s new website: The McGill Mental Health Hub.

very year, one in 10 McGill students will visit McGill’s Mental Health Service (MMHS).

While this means the majority of students may never set foot in the quiet offices of the Brown Building’s fifth floor, MMHS actually ends up playing a role more crucial than ever for many individuals.

Mental Illness Awareness Week kicked off at McGill on Oct. 4 with the annual Students in Mind conference.

During the conference, MMHS presented its new website and online resource for students: McGill Mental Health Hub, also previously known as the McGill Wellness Portal. Emily Yung, McGill’s Mental Health Education coordinator, is one of the brains behind this new tool.

Originally from Markham, Ontario, Yung completed her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at Western University. She proceeded to pursue a two-year masters in Psychiatry from McGill, graduating in 2014. Yung was inspired to venture into the field of mental health in her first year of undergraduate studies while volunteering with a family doctor who also practiced psychotherapy. Yung would sit in on his psychotherapy sessions and observe how the doctor induced change in patients on a daily basis.

Through this, Yung saw how various sessions would help foster transformations even within a one-hour period. While changes within an hour may be minimal, there was enough positive impact for the individual to carry out their week through learning how to cope with what was going

on, until the next session. This inspired her to pursue a career in the mental health field, and led her to her current position at McGill.

While many McGill students may not experience mental health issues themselves, the likelihood of having a friend or family member who has experienced one is large.

“Often times, we do see [students] bringing in friends of concern or they come to the clinic asking what do I do with a friend,” said Yung. “We don’t necessarily provide appointments for friends or family that are concerned about McGill students but [...] if they have any questions we encourage them to bring [...] their friend to come seek help.”

In 2012, under the direction of Dr. Robert Franck, MMHS submitted grant proposals to Bell Let’s Talk—a program designed to promote conversation on mental illness in Canada—for a plan to create an online mental health hub for students. The new website would offer information and resources for mental health at McGill in an attempt to reach those who may not necessarily know they needed help, or those who weren’t inclined to seek out help in the traditional sense. It received $500,000 from Bell Let’s Talk funds.

Over the past five years, MMHS has experienced over a 30 per cent increase in the use of its services. For the coming year, it anticipates an approximate 10 per cent increase from last year. MMHS expects a further increase in use as a result of the hub, and will use a portion of the Bell Let’s Talk grant to equip the office

for heightened demand.

Seventy-five per cent of mental illnesses occur before the age of 25; thus, university students are a particularly vulnerable population.

By having a resource online, this makes the information of psycho-education much more accessible In university, there are a lot of different stressors that may occur, such as moving away from home, trying to balance academics, workload, and relationships, and figuring out what to do after graduation.

“Transitioning to university is an inherently stressful event, no matter when it happens or what else is going on in our lives at the same time,” said Tori Conconi, U3 Nursing. “While there is a healthy level of stress that our body and mind can cope with and benefit from, we can very quickly find ourselves beyond that threshold [...] an important determinant in how we deal with this stress is what resources we have at our disposal that can help us cope.”

One of the biggest issues that required addressing, and one of the largest reasons for the creation of the website, is the fact that less than half of young adults aged 18 to 25 who experience a mental health problem will seek help. “[Students] just don’t recognize that what they’re experiencing may warrant seeking help,” Yung said. “They may think [stress] is a normal part of life, but there is a point where it really impairs the functioning of a person, [so that] they’re not able to enjoy life anymore, do things that are meaningful to them, or be successful in the way that they see success.”

Yung’s position was created as a result of the Bell Let’s Talk grant, to fill the need of a project manager for the website.

“The first step was honing on what were the biggest needs of students and how can we put that onto a website,” said Yung. “We did a lot of literature review and research on e-mental health and online tools for university students.”

One of the most prominent features of the website, and the largest component of the grant proposal, is a self-screening tool for students to fill out a questionnaire on their current state of mental health. Students are then provided with a list of resources that fit with their responses and needs at the time. The screening tool uses evidencebased screenings, like the Patient Health Questionnaire, to tap into different domains of mental well-being including depression, anxiety, panic attacks, substance abuse, and eating disorders.

While screening is currently an important part of the website, it was not initially received well by everyone involved in the creation process.

“There was a little bit of pushback on whether or not to include a screening tool on the website because some thought that it was medicalizing the model of mental well-being,” said Yung. “But at the same time there is value to helping a student get a gauge on how they’re feeling.”

In the end the website kept the screening tool due to evidence from other academic institutions where similar screenings that were offered proved to be useful. A study of the e-mental health website at the University of Washington showed that over 50 per cent of students who took the self-screening proceeded to the referral section of the system.

Of 829 positive screening test results, 42.1 per cent led to subsequent referral requests.

The study also claimed that time constraints are a large barrier to students who wish to seek help during regular daytime office hours. The site’s peak hours are between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.—accounting for almost 30 per cent of the website’s use—indicating that having an accessible resource allowed students to assess their mental health and seek help with convenience.

Following the release of the site, the University of Washington Mental Health Center experienced a 13 per cent increase in student patient volume, in contrast to the three per cent to four per cent of the previous year.

The creation of the McGill Mental Health Hub also involved a lengthy process of gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback from staff and students through surveys, focus groups, synthesizing information, and making appropriate changes to the site to fit student needs.

“We created an online survey to evaluate the website and this was sent randomly to 3,000 McGill students,” said Yung. “Of those students, about 350 responded to the survey with their experience using the beta website.

Through that survey we gathered the information and synthesized it to make changes for the second rendition website so that it better meets students’ needs based off their stats.”

The majority of changes involved including more content on different subjects that staff and students felt were important, and making layout changes such as having fewer clicks to get to the information they wanted at a more efficient pace.

While Yung said the collaborative aspect of her work on the site is the most rewarding part of her job, she admits that it can be rather challenging to blend everyone’s perspective to create one cohesive site.

“A lot of different people have opinions and they want to have their say, both staff and students,” she said. “The challenge was taking the time to listen to everyone’s opinion, [...] respecting their opinion, but also advancing the project in a way that will respect the original grant proposal that was written, and respecting our timeline as well.”

While the website launched last week after approximately three years of

development, it is far from completed.

After a long process of putting it together, Yung is hopeful that having an e-mental health resource, as opposed to only offering in-person information, will allow students to not only learn more about mental well-being and mental illness, but also help to reduce the stigma around it and help students to take care of themselves.

“This is the age of technology coming in and everyone is often on their computers, phones, or always connected online,” she said. “By having a resource online, this makes the information of psycho-education much more accessible.”

According to Yung, one of the largest obstacles of working in mental health at McGill is the lack of resources to meet the high demand for mental health service.

“I see it every day at work,” she said. “There is just such a great need and sometimes it can be frustrating working within this field where we can’t necessarily meet the need immediately for students.”

Kaelan Forgues, U2 Management, said that the creation of the mental health hub will fill in the service gap that occurs during periods of high demand. “[MMHS] turns away a lot of students, especially during high volume periods of stress, like during exams,” she said. “A website to either help students answer questions, or direct them to other possible outlets to deal with their stress would be good.”

The McGill Mental Health Office anticipates a further increase in student patient volume, similar to that seen at the University of Washington. However, according to Yung, a portion of the grant has been used to better equip the office to deal with the higher demand.

The new Mental Health Hub also provides information to concerned individuals by outlining ways to listen supportively, giving warning signs for suicide, and listing information on how to refer a friend to MMHS, something that the Mental Health Office does not necessarily offer.

“Often times we do see friends bringing in friends of concern or they do come to the clinic asking what do I do with a friends, and we don’t necessarily provide appointments for friends or family that are concerned about McGill students,” said Yung.

However, MMHS can never force a student to seek help. Students have to go at their own will, and if there is a strong expression of concern, MMHS tells the Office of the Dean of Students who have the reach to contact students who may be of concern.

Perhaps the online Mental Health Hub will reach students who may have otherwise not sought out help, or even recognized that they needed it; however, the exact ramifications on McGill’s Mental Health Office is something that remains to be seen. Nonetheless, access to mental health services will only serve to improve resource availability for students, and the emergence of an e-mental health hub in the millenia cyber generation will undeniably increase the reach across campus.

Mental Health Statistics Infographic by Hayley Lim

Information from (www.Camh.Ca and mcgill.Ca/mentalhealth

Arts & Entertainment

10

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

Yours Truly, Montreal provides a ride through the city’s cultural history Marina Sulmona Contributor A permanent feature at the PointeA-Cailliere Museum in Old Port, Yours Truly, Montreal is an immersive exhibit that takes its audience on a journey through Montreal’s history to see how the city has evolved to become the diverse cultural and political hub it is today. The multimedia exhibit is a testament to Montreal’s roots.

Above the archaeological maze dug into the ground is a 270º screen that maps out Montreal’s unique history.

Throughout the show, four numbers projected on the rocks that serve as the base of the exhibit rapidly increase, notifying viewers of the years in question, as the narration speeds through Montreal’s upbringing.

The number -11 000, representing 11,000 BCE, is illuminated on the structure of rocks, and the show begins.

Projections of light replicating a sheet of ice are followed by water rushing in shine over the expanse of stone— movement that ignites an anticipatory excitement. Soon enough, the numbers have scrolled to 1642 and a voice-over representing Montreal introduces itself, “Bonjour Montréal! You are here.”

Swirling through a breadth of history, the eye is prone to wander, and

the mind must keep up with the vast array of information that spans from the politics of the fur trade, to the stories of the city’s founders Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, to the fervor of the migration to the suburbs experienced in the 1960s.

Though the quantity of information provided is extensive, the show’s graphics wholeheartedly fulfill their purpose of illustrating the city’s atmosphere throughout various points in history. A curated mix of animation, video content, and photography propels the show and preserves a harmony between the respective mediums of representation.

Minimal, colourful illustrations of stained glass cathedrals, and crisscrossing expressways envelop the screen. A stream of watercolours paints over black and white sketches of the Plateau. The vividness of the illustrations brings an air of youthfulness and clarity to the exhibit. By keeping the visuals eye-catching, intricate, yet simple enough not to get lost in, the exhibit is able to keep its viewers hooked.

The task of providing an allencompassing historical summary of the development of a city is daunting.

Covering centuries of evolution in landscape, culture, and economic setting in under 20 minutes is a remarkable

Yours Truly, Montreal reveals the city’s past in stunning detail and beauty (tknl.com) task. Though it often feels as though the narrator of Yours Truly, Montreal is rushing to squeeze the extensive amount of content in on time, she maintains a certain eloquence while doing so. The exhibit is able to embrace its ambitious challenge, and more importantly, the voice of Montreal does not hesitate in defining its past.

Whether a tourist or a Montreal native, Yours Truly, Montreal inspires a sense of pride for the city. From the lights of Place Ville Marie, to the greenery of Parc la Fontaine, the expanse

of diverse neighbourhoods are all given appropriate recognition. The real magic of the exhibit is its ability to highlight the features that make each neighbourhood unique while showing how they work together to define the city as a whole.

Overall, the message of the exhibit is that Montreal is a cohesive, striving entity whose past has seen hiccups, but has remained undeterred. It’s a place composed of multiple ethnic backgrounds, varying geographic landscapes, and a wealth of artistic expression—able to accommodate a

population as diverse as its history.

The stopwatch alerts us that it’s 2015 as the film pans to a landscape of today’s metropolis. In a nostalgic tone, our narrator signs off with the reminder; “I am, you are, we are all Montreal.”

Yours Truly, Montreal is a permanent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History (350 Place Royale, Corner of de la Commune). Admission for students 18-30 is $12.

FLASHBACK L’amour l’Aprés Midi (1972)

Nico Wada Contributor

Continued from Page one The film’s hero is Frédéric (Bernard Verley), a pleasant business executive who almost resembles American Beauty’s Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) in his dissatisfaction with conjugal love and banal daily life. While his marriage to wife Hélène (Françoise Verley) consists of mutual respect and simplicity, Frédéric is nonetheless drawn to the sea of beautiful women passing through

Frédéric (Bernard Verley) grapples with the concept of romantic obligation (amazonaws.com) Paris on his daily commute to work. Observing the ladies sitting by him on the train, Frédéric remarks: “When I see a woman, I’m no longer able to classify her as easily among the chosen or the outcasts. I can’t recall on what criteria I based my judgment. What was that ‘something’ that a woman had to have to attract me and that I could detect at first glance?”

Frédéric questions his decision to love Hélène when there exists a plethora of other women who may contain that same “something.”

As Rohmer’s films tend to delve

into philosophical realms, he appears to be highlighting the tension between Hélène’s role as a wife and her role as a person, and forces the audience to look at the moral implications of this.

Suddenly, Chloé (fabulously played by Zouzou) enters the picture by arriving at Frédéric’s office one day. An old flame of his, she embodies the opposing forces of lust and desire over those of marriage and devotion. As Frédéric’s work schedule leaves him ample time for lunch breaks— in typical French bourgeoisie

manner—Chloé and Frédéric meet in the afternoons. They talk and flirt, though not enough to threaten Frédéric’s conjugal piety. With Rohmer’s ability to create mesmerizingly complex characters, Chloé proves to have both an intrusive and passive presence in Frédéric’s life— always there, yet popping in and out at the right times. Chloé finds Frédéric’s love for his wife to be an act, telling him: “You love her—if you really do—because you’re supposed to. I couldn’t stand being loved like that […] I won’t accept compromises. But since you’re so bourgeois, act the part.”

To that, Frédéric responds: “In a polygamous society, I’d be polygamous.”

Aside from Rohmer asking us if conjugal love is all performance and if monogamy is merely a dull act of conformity, he also uses his visionary talent to create an outstanding viewing experience.

Though the film is in French and many English-speaking eyes may be drawn toward the subtitles at the bottom of the screen (as Rohmer does rely heavily on verbal wit),

the imagery of the film should not be disregarded. In a particularly poetic scene, the camera floats around Frédéric, who weaves through a Paris crowd, as a melodic voice-over runs, comparing the energy of the city commuters to the current of the sea. Rohmer also makes deliberately smart stylistic choices, such as always strategically framing Hélène with her children by her side, creating an image of Frédéric’s familial duties and responsibilities to matrimony.

Additionally, Rohmer avoids shooting in closeup as a way of distancing the audience and allowing the viewer to decide whether or not to trust his multidimensional, intriguing characters.

Rohmer’s ability to turn the mundane into a visually intriguing, psychological story is encapsulated in Love in the Afternoon. The plot, simply relatable and concluding into a scene so empathetically pitiful, cements this film as a longlasting romantic classic.

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Science & technology

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Vaccines, GMOs, and cell phones: The Lorne Trottier Symposium discusses modern controversies A Question of Evidence? leads to answers sihara wickremasignhe Contributor Known for his ventures in communicating science to the general public, Director of the Office for Science and Society (OSS), Joe Schwarcz moderated the 10th annual Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium this past Monday and Tuesday at Centre Mont Royal. Every year, the symposium brings together like-minded individuals to discuss a number of controversial topics. This year, speakers included Dr. Paul A. Offit, Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, and Dr. Kevin Folta, who tackled issues surrounding vaccines, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and cell phones, respectively.

The first talk, presented by Offit, who is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on Monday, focused on the fear of vaccinations.

The rates of diseases such as measles or whooping cough have dramatically lowered, largely due to the use of vaccinations in the past. “[Today’s] people grew up in a time when none of these diseases existed,” Offit said. “They have not been exposed, so they are not afraid.”

This lack of exposure means people aren’t afraid of the repercussions.

“Fear of vaccines stems from a lack of fear of the diseases,” explained Offit.

The second day of the symposium covered the issue of cell phone radiation.

Kabat, an epidemiologist from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, spoke about cellphones and

their possible relation to brain cancer, which first became an issue in 1993.

“A man whose wife had died of cancer at a young age went on a popular television program in the U.S. and claimed that her cancer was caused by her talking constantly on her cell phone,” said Kabat in an interview on Larry King Live. “If one looks at all of the evidence that we now have, there is no convincing signal that use of cell phones or exposure to these waves from WiFi is having any harmful effects on health.”

Kabat showcased a number of cell phone-use studies and highlighted that most studies, such as the Interphone study of 2010, showed no trend of increased cell phone use causing brain cancers. “[Unfortunately,] it is just a fact that positive results—whether right or wrong—get much more attention than negative results,” said Kabat during his talk. “Cell phone activists latch onto positive results but ignore the totality of the evidence.”

A study conducted in 2011

by Lennart Hardell, oncologist and professor at Örebro University Hospital in Sweden, did uncover a correlation between increased cell phone use and the development of cancers.

Nevertheless, Kabat explained that those results should be taken with a grain of salt because the cases examined were patients that had filled out reports about themselves, and were taken from hospitals or tumour registries.

Consequently, the patients may have been looking for a correlation between cancer and cellphone radiation.

From left to right: Emily Shore, Brian Ward, Paul Offit, Joe Schwarcz, Kevin Folta, Geoffrey Kabat, and Lorne Trottier.

(Photo courtesy of Owen Segan / OSS) “[Data can be distorted when you ask] people to remember their use of cell phones going back decades,” said Kabat. “Cases [can report] different information due to recall bias”.

Folta, a professor of Horticultural Science at the University of Florida, then addressed the safety of using GMOs. “Our food supply in the U.S.A. has never been more diverse, safe and plentiful,” Folta began. “In 18 years of use in plants, there has not been one case of illness or death related to these products.”

According to Folta, the fear of GMOs is a consequence of the popular belief that genetic engineering

is harmful; however, Folta stressed genetic improvement has existed for decades.

“All existing crops and animals have [already] been radically reshaped by humans,” Folta said. “[Plants can be genetically modified to produce] more variety, a greater crop yield and have added virus resistance and insect resistance.”

These types of genetic modifications have helped reduce the need for pesticide use. Furthermore, they’ve helped prevent vitamin deficiencies because crops can be fortified to be more vitamin rich. For example, golden-rice—a genetically modified strain of rice rich in beta-

carotene—is produced and consumed in developing countries, like the Philippines and Bangladesh.

“Whether you’re for or against GMO labelling, it’s a non-issue,” said Folta. “We can worry about luxuries like that once everybody’s fed.”

Both Kabat and Folta stated that they believe that increased scientific literacy is required within the general media, because more and more, media outlets will favour headlines that yield larger audiences, without considering the facts. Consequently, frustration has grown within the scientific community.

“There’s a strong feeling among scientists that we need to become the media,” said Folta.

bioinformatics is changing the experimental process Computational studies provide greater insight in life sciences Clare Lyle Contributor Every iPhone has a processor that is roughly 10 times faster than the Apollo Guidance Computer, used during the first moon landing. The IBM 7090, considered the fastest supercomputer in the 60s, would fail to keep up with today’s smartest watches.

Computational power has grown exponentially over the years, but it is only recently that scientists have begun to apply these techniques to studying the microscopic world.

Mohamed Smaoui, a post-doctoral fellow at McGill, is doing exactly this.

His research explores novel approaches to modeling how proteins behave in cells.

Proteins are long chains of molecules called amino acids, and the spatial arrangement of these amino acids has major implications on how they behave in the body. By understanding how proteins can misfold, diseases that can

be caused by improper protein folding, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes, are better understood.

A 2015 paper from the lab, published in the journal BMC Structural Biology, detailed the process by which Smaoui was able to find a method of treatment for diabetic patients whose symptoms were caused by a misshaped protein called an amyloid.

Simulating amyloid behaviour requires a lot of computational horsepower.

“Some of [the molecules we were modeling] had a few million atoms,” said Smaoui.

By finding clever ways of reducing the number of calculations that a computer has to make in its simulation, computer scientists can reduce the amount of time it takes to model proteins.

The discovery occurred largely due to a new algorithm that Smaoui developed to model protein behaviour, which allowed scientists to make use

of supercomputers to simulate the interactions of larger molecules. By developing an algorithm powerful enough to simulate molecular interactions between amyloids and potential treatments, Smaoui could find a compound that reduces the toxicity of the misfolded proteins found in the diabetic patients.

“The novel thing about the algorithm was that it was creating these long fibril structures, that no one has modeled before computationally,” Smaoui explained. “The best we had [before] was modeling one single protein.”

Even with cutting edge algorithms, however, the complexity of the protein structures means that simulating a nanosecond of interactions requires a lot of time.

“For [the nanosecond] timescale, that takes up to a week of supercomputer time,” said Jérôme Waldispühl, a professor at McGill who leads the Computer Science and Biology Group

in the School of Computer Science.

Despite their limitations, computers can still provide a faster alternative to the tedious process of recreating experimental conditions, and this is helping the field of bioinformatics gain traction in the biochemistry community.

Computational tools like the algorithm Smaoui developed are becoming increasingly available to researchers in genetics and microbiology who lack the mathematical background necessary to do modeling or data analysis themselves. For example, Smaoui developed a program called Fibrilizer to help other scientists model proteins.

David Bujold, a master’s student at McGill, is also working on developing computational tools that let geneticists and biochemists take advantage of developments in computer science. He described the field as a melding of two distinct but complementary disciplines.

“In bioinformatics you have a

mix of both [computer scientists and biologists],” said Bujold. “You have a whole bunch of people who are studying biochemistry, microbiology, et cetera, who are coming to the field and then learn computer science to be able to do what they want to do. And then you have on the other side people with a computer science background apply what they know about computer science to solve the problems that geneticists and biochemists have.”

Beyond simply promoting collaboration between biologists and computer scientists, new academic programs are encouraging students to consider entering the field of bioinformatics proper, rather than through a strictly computer science—or biology-related path.

“Nowadays, the field of bioinformatics is developing as well, so you have undergrad and graduate programs about bioinformatics in its own right,” Bujold said.

12

Science & technology Learn to Code: An evening hosted by HackMcGill

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Tutorials offered on languages, platforms, and programs Andy Wang Contributor On Sept. 30, HackMcGill hosted its second Learn to Code event at the Lorne Trottier Building.

Created for McGill students unfamiliar with the programming world, Learn to Code offers newcomers help from those with experience.

Following a brief introduction about the types of programming languages and a list of the web tutorials that the participants could use during the event, the students began to work on their computers. During the event, the 30 or so students in attendance were able to learn the ins and outs of programming with HackMcGill executives readily available to answer questions. Tutorials featured help on Python, Ruby, HTML/CSS, Java, Haskell, and OCaml.

“A lot of people want to learn how to program, but the sheer volume of information out there can be overwhelming for a beginner,” explained Clare Lyle, Director at HackMcGill. “Learn to Code is a way [to make] the abundance of information accessible. Having

RESEARCH BRIEFS

someone on hand to ask for help when you get stuck can help beginners gain momentum and get past the initial ‘I have no idea what any of this means’ phase.”

This sentiment was the driving force behind the creation of HackMcGill. Created by two McGill computer science students who wanted to make programming fun and less intimidating to the average person, HackMcGill is a unique outlet at McGill for all students.

“It’s a community of computer programming enthusiasts who get together and just have fun with coding,” Amiel Kollek, co-president of HackMcGill, said.

Ensuring students can both learn and have fun often means bypassing a lot of the intimidating information that many professors teach in their beginner courses.

“If you just want to make your own website or app, comp classes won’t always help,” explained Kollek.

Down the road, concepts like algorithms and data structures are important for understanding certain processes, but not necessary from the beginning

“It’s really hard to learn to code in class,” Berke Yanilmaz, a U0 Science who attended the event, explained. “You can get the theory in class but it is really hard to put in practice once you are all alone.”

With events like Learn to Code, HackMcGill is aiming towards changing the way coding is perceived by the general public.

“People who come to our events come from all kinds of backgrounds,” said Michael Noseworthy, another Director at HackMcGill. “There are people who have never coded before to people who are computer science majors.”

Already, more and more web and app development is done by teams, but most novice coding is done alone, meaning it’s hard to get answers and find like-minded people to help out.

“We also wanted to add a more social aspect to coding, which is usually considered to be pretty solitary,” said Lyle. “We wanted to get people coding with their friends, asking each other questions, and building a community geared towards learning.”

Fostering a relaxed learning environment at these events not

Learn to Code connected novice programmers with their experienced peers.

(Photo courtesy of HackMcGill / Instagram) only helps build a community, but attracts people to the field.

“I got into computer science because I went to an event like this when I was in U0,” said Kollek.

This attitude continues to attract students to HackMcGill events today.

Since its inception, HackMcGill has garnered a lot of

popularity and is now responsible for hosting a number of different coding-related events. For those with experience in the programming world, HackMcGill hosts events such as Hack101 and McHacks.

Whatever level a student may be, HackMcGill aims to help.

Full disclosure: Clare Lyle is a contributor for the McGill Tribune.

This week in space

The total lunar exlipse and NASA’s discovery of water on Mars wanlin song Contributor Throughout history, blood moons have been associated with bad omens. In Chinese tradition, a blood moon foreshadowed famine or disease. Mesopotamians believed that a lunar eclipse resulted from attacks by demons. But on Sept. 27, from 10:11 p.m. to 10:37 p.m., when the moon turned red, there were no famines or attacks. Beautiful and eerie, this colouration is caused by a total lunar eclipse. Unlike solar eclipses, which are rare and only visible from specific places on Earth, lunar eclipses occur at least twice a year. They’re visible to almost any part of the world, as long as it’s night when the eclipse is happening.

What made this particular lunar eclipse so special was that this occurred during a supermoon— when the moon is at its closest point to Earth during its orbit, and looks bigger than normal. This was the first time in over 30 years that a supermoon and a lunar eclipse coincided.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth, and moon are aligned with Earth in the middle. As the

moon creeps into the Earth’s shadow, it gradually disappears from the view of people on Earth. Once the moon enters the umbra—the central part of Earth’s shadow where all direct sunlight is blocked—a total lunar eclipse occurs. At this point, the sunlight that passes through the periphery of Earth’s atmosphere is scattered, giving the moon a red hue.

In the same week, NASA scientists released their latest discovery—evidence of water on Mars. Published in Nature Geoscience, the article detailed their use of Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) to obtain data that supported their hypothesis that flowing water exists on Mars.

CRISM is a specially designed spectrometer which studies the absorption of light of different wavelengths. In this way, it maps the presence of minerals and chemicals on Mars that may indicate past interactions with water.

Lujendra Ojha, PhD candidate in planetary science at Georgia Institute College, lead the project.

The idea first came to him when he discovered that high-resolution images of Mars showed narrow streaks of low reflectance compared

Lunar eclipses are due to a special orientation of the Sun, Earth and Moon. (biblebelievers.org.au) to the surrounding terrain. These dark streaks are generally a few meters wide and 1.2 kilometers long. Ojha and his colleagues named these gully-like structures Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL), because the RSL would disappear and reappear seasonally. To be clear—RSL’s are not bodies of water. Rather, they’re geological structures whose formation may involve flowing water.

To prove that RSL’s were indeed created by flowing water, Ojha obtained spectra samples with

CRISM from several areas where RSL were present. By comparing the spectra of RSL to spectra of a known substance, he was able to determine their compositions.

In all the sample sites his team studied, they observed “waterrelated [spectrum] absorption features,” as well as minerals such as chlorate and perchlorate salts.

From this, Ojha concluded that the RSL must be formed by highlysalted solutions, and not pure water.

This is consistent with the fact that in order to have water flowing on

Mars, it must be high in salt to have a low freezing point.

“Although the [amount of] water in [the] perchlorate solution may be too low to support known terrestrial life [...] this enhanced evidence of water flow also provides new clues as to the nature of the current Martian hydrologic cycle,” Ojha wrote in his article.

While the quest for life goes on, much can be derived from the understanding of the climate, the soil, and the atmospheres of places like Mars.

13

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

student of the week

S A ML A U K U T A N A u 3 S C IEN C E

By Audrey Carleton (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune)

T h e V i e w p o i n t

Samlau Kutana, U3 Arts, has a strong passion for helping others that has guided him into psychology. At first, however, he didn’t know that he wanted to pursue psychology as a major. Like a lot of university students, Kutana experienced a change of heart in his academic interests midway through his university career.

“I started out as a biology student, and it was really hard, I will admit,” said Kutana.

“But I also wasn’t really as interested in learning about [biology] [...] so I made the switch to psychology.”

Though biology wasn’t for him, Kutana’s time spent studying in the sciences did not set back his studies. On the contrary, it gave him an edge when he made the transition.

Kutana was also able to utilize his knowledge of biology for his minor in computer science.

Students with this combination often note that psychology and computer science have a lot in common because of the parallels between brain functioning and computer functioning.

Kutana acknowledges this similarity, but still feels that there is a large gap between his two fields of study. Rather than being daunted by this dichotomy, Kutana finds it enjoyable.

As a fourth-year student in psychology, Kutana has had time to identify his key interest in the field, and the ways in which it is changing.

“I really like personality psychology,” said Kutana. “Right now, I’m just really interested in how we’re going to revamp our classification of mental disorders. [The researchers for the Diagnostic Statistics Manual are] trying to move away from rigid categorizations and more into a spectrum-based approach.”

What drew Kutana into the field in the first place was his underlying desire to help people, and he hopes to go into teaching or possiby counselling. He speculates that his desire to help people was passed down to him by his parents, who are both doctors. In particular, his dad, who is originally from Ghana,

works on developing the medical community there.

“My dad has been really interested in giving back to the [Ghanaian] community,” Kutana said. “He’s been trying to build up their medical infrastructure. He’s been setting up internships with students at Boston Medical Centre to go to Ghana. I’ve been really inspired by that as a way to give back from what I have, and what I’ve gotten.”

Kutana’s passion for helping others also comes from his extensive time working as a lifeguard and swim instructor in his hometown of Sharon, Massachussetts. While other swim instructors struggled with staying patient when working with children, Kutana found himself able to remain calm quite easily. For this reason, his preference is to teach children who find swimming scary or challenging.

“I never want to yell at kids—I’m never going to do that [....] It was kind of stressful for me watching other people do that,” Kutana explained. “So I would request the kids that were getting yelled at by the lifeguards, to get them in my class, because they’re not doing that well.”

One swimming student in particular stands out in Kutana’s mind when discussing his natural ability to teach.

“The most challenging and the most rewarding thing is connecting with kids who really don’t have any self-confidence,” Kutana said. “I had one kid who had no self-confidence [because of] the fact that he couldn’t swim, and his parents couldn’t swim.”

Teaching a student who does not believe they can learn what is being taught is a daunting task for any instructor, yet Kutana explained his strategy for dealing with this situation.

“We were able to just turn it into games and make it fun, and it was cool to watch him go from level two to level three and four and five in the span of like eight weeks,” he said.

“It was really amazing.”

As someone with a propensity for helping people and a natural ability to interact well with others, Kutana is a strong example of leadership within the McGill community, and he hopes to apply his passion and patience when he graduates next May.

Q&A McGill Tribune (MT): Would you rather fight one horse-sized chicken, or a hundred chicken-sized horses?

Samlau Kutana (SK): One horse-sized chicken

is a formidable opponent. It’s got a sharp beak and talons and is probably pecking really fast. Chickens are pretty smart, and it would have all the pent-up chicken rage because we’ve enslaved trillions of their fellow chickens. I don’t want to fight that.

A hundred chicken-sized horses would also be hard, but I feel like it’s doable. You just have to find the high ground.

MT: Do you have a person in your life that you look up to the most?

SK: Not really, but I try to look at people in

my friend group and in my life who have qualities that I admire and try to emulate that in myself [....] So it’s more just be your own person, but incorporate the best that you see out there and everything will fall into place.

MT: If you could meet any person, living or dead, who would it be?

I’d like to have dinner with George Washington Carver. He was a crazy smart botanist and inventor, who first introduced peanut butter to the world. He had over 100 recipes involving peanuts; the dude was magical. I’d want to get his opinion on a Reese’s cup as well.

SK:

r e s ta u r a n t o . n o i r Dining in the dark is most enlightening

Ariella garmaise Contributor Continued from page one I opted for the path of spontaneity and chose the mystery courses. My meals were arranged as mazes of texture, serving as a reminder that food is so much more interesting than the symmetrical presentation prioritized by new age food bloggers and Instagrammers.

Consistency, heat, weight—senses that had never been triggered before are suddenly crucial. Slippery-smooth parsnip

is juxtaposed with soft, warm roasted potatoes, and a sickly sweet caramelized apple tops the subtly salty duck confit. Taking a bite of each of these foods is a dance, spoonfuls no longer calculated moves so much as spontaneous jabs mid-plate. Eating is not a choreographed routine but a wild improvisation, bites of meat and salad jumping out at random. Dessert follows a similar pattern in jiving a myriad of surfaces.

Banana Panna Cotta was sprinkled with a hazelnut and citrus crumble that provided bursts of crunch, although the

sour yogurt overpowered the acidic garnish. The meal’s final performance was not perfect; the appetizer Veal Carpacio was prepared too thick, and the dessert’s sour yogurt overpowered the acidic garnish. However, it was the production that was most mesmerizing, an experience that is more about process than presentation The senses required to navigate a meal at O.Noir expand the gustatory experience. Social interactions, usually guided by body motions like persistent eye contact or the tilt of a head, are sud-

denly derailed. Conversations are actually judged by their content, and listening skills are sharpened as you pay close attention for a stumble or treble in your dining partner’s voice. If this makes for an ideal blind date, it could also be subject for a bizarre social experiment.

O.Noir plays dull elevator music over the chatter, a particular nuisance with our sense of hearing taking new importance in the dark. Still, it is exhilarating to listen to the world in a new way—the laughter of surrounding tables echo the room, forks scraping score the evening,

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and your own conversation survives without vision.

Montreal is renowned for fine cuisine, and while O.Noir might not offer a perfect meal, it does showcase an unparalleled adventure.

“We have a culinary experience that is out of the ordinary, that focuses on taste rather than visuals,” Martinez beamed.

Bring a date, some friends, your parents visiting for the weekend; at the very least you will walk away with a good story to tell.

14

Student Living

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Spiced apple oatmeal recipe Spiced apple oatmeal recipe Serves 1

Ingredients: 1/2 cup of rolled oats 1/2 cup of almond milk or whole milk 1/2 cup of water A inch of salt A pinch of cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla 1/8 teaspoon of ginger 1 teaspoon of hemp seeds 1 teaspoon of raisins Maple syrup to sweeten 1 peeled apple Coconut yogurt or Greek yogurt

Spiced apple oatmeal is a great way to ring in the fall (Liz Willcock / McGill Tribune)

By Liz Willcock Fall is in the air—which unfortunately is a lot colder and a lot less romantic than it sounds. ‘Tis the season for midterms, sweaters, and cheesy autumn-themed 8tracks playlists. More importantly, however, ‘tis the season for comfort food. Gone are the days where you might wake up and, in a bout of health-filled inspiration, make a green juice or opt for a salad for lunch. Although the Tribune can’t help out with midterm preparations, we have students’ comfort food needs covered with this warming spiced apple oatmeal recipe.

If you’ve ventured anywhere near a farmer’s market

this week, you’ve surely noted the abundance of local apples. Although it is still a challenge to figure out how to distinguish Gala from McIntosh and Spartan, this season has them all, and they’re equally delicious. For this recipe, the vendors behind the Macdonald Campus stall at the McGill Farmers Market recommended Gala apples for their sweetness, but any variety of local apples will do! At 25 cents per apple, there are no good reasons to say no.

This week’s recipe takes advantage of the proximity of the market to campus, but there’s still time for an applepicking excursion in the coming weeks.

Directions: Mix the oats, milk, water and salt in a saucepan and warm over medium heat for one minute. Add in cinnamon, vanilla, and ginger.

Keep stirring the porridge for 3 to 5 minutes, or until desired consistency is reached. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle with raisins, apple, and hemp seeds. Drizzle with maple syrup and then add the yogurt on top.

The Yellow Door is open to everyone Montreal community organization undergoes revival in programming and participation amber hord Contributor In a city as diverse and fastpaced as Montreal, isolation is something that many people experience, and is especially prevalent among youth. The Yellow Door, a non-profit organization, realizes it is not as easy to make connections as one may think, and seeks to create a space focused on building relationships and breaking down isolation.

“There are a lack of contexts in which we have to interact with one another and build real relationships,” Matthew Bouchard, executive director of the Yellow Door, said.

Located in the Milton-Parc community at 3625 Rue Aylmer, the organization looks to bring young people together within its walls through weekly events. It also fosters the participation of youth in the community by empowering them to create and engage in projects that promote social inclusion and holistic well-being.

The Yellow Door has grown and evolved since its beginning in the early 1900s. Its founder, Baron Strathcona, noticed what he perceived to be a lack in the promotion of Christian values in the Montreal community. In response, he started an organization whose aims were to promote these

principles, and consequently founded the Yellow Door. Since then, the Yellow Door has moved away from its original mission through a constant adaptation to society’s ever-changing needs. It was after the Quiet Revolution and the Vietnam War that the Yellow Door became secular, and turned its emphasis towards services that targeted inclusivity and community building.

In the past, according to Bouchard, the number of events and projects was small, and the organization was nearly shut down due to lack of participation. The only program that was having any success was the Generations project—a service that battled inter-generational isolation by partnering up a young volunteer with an elderly person in the community.

Recently, however, the Yellow Door has undergone a resurgence in its programming and involvement in the Montreal community.

After assembling a new team of driven individuals, Bouchard described how they attempted to revive the organization and reinstill its importance in the Montreal community.

“We sat down and said, what was it that made the Yellow Door so successful in the ‘60s and ‘70s? There were so many avenues to get in,” Bouchard said.

Many of the programs that are in place now were born from a community member coming in with an issue they saw, with an idea of how to address it—something that has been a practice since the Yellow Door’s formation. For example, between 1970 and 1972, volunteers noticed how the counterculture drug scene within Montreal was affecting the community. In response, they set up a dropin psychiatric clinic that counselled young addicts. The Coffee House— which still runs today and features open mic and comedy nights—began in this era as a place for people to connect over music, poetry, and philosophy, as well as other art forms.

“The Yellow Door is a launchpad,” said Bouchard. “[It’s] a place where people can come, exchange ideas, find a social issue that motivates them, and do something about it [...] the young adults and the members of the organization that determine our opinion.”

The Yellow Door’s mandate— to constantly evolve based on the needs of the people involved and the community it serves without aligning itself with a particular political ideology—is what makes the organization unique. In an effort to open up the organization to more people with a wider variety of interests, Yel-

low Door kickstarted a multitude of new projects and workshops. Recent projects include the Rabbit Hole Café, which serves vegan lunch every Friday and a food bank for students, and BranchOut, which offers workshops focused on social inclusion, and provides support for volunteers who want to start their own projects in the community.

“We now have activities like meditation, a tea ceremony, poetry readings, and a songwriter workshop,” explained Bouchard.

Bouchard also attributed the resurgence in Yellow Door’s participation to an increase in their online and social media presence. The website is more user friendly, and a community events calendar is in the works. This helps community members easily find where and when events are held, and ultimately make the Yellow Door more accessible. Information about events and getting involved can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

“Looking forward, the Yellow Door is hoping to grow organically,” said Bouchard.

New ideas and increase in participation hope to grow in tandem, resulting in the development of the organization as a force of positive social change within Montreal.

(Stephanie Ngo / McGill Tribune)

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

15

Sports

POINT C O U N T E R P O I N T 1993 Blue Jays vs. 2015 Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays just wrapped up their first AL East Championship in 22 years, ending a magical season with a 93-69 record. Could this year’s squad be even better than the beloved Jays of ‘93? (artvictus.com, todaysknuckleball.com)

1993

2015

PITCHING

Pitching

Comparing the ERAs of these two staffs doesn’t do this argument justice. You need to take into account the context of different-era ERAs; 22 years is a long time in any sport, but it’s an eternity in baseball. For example, the ’93 Jays’ fifth starter Jack Morris placed fifth in 1992’s Cy Young voting after posting a 4.04 ERA. Last year’s fifth-place finisher, Jordan Zimmermann, posted a 2.66 ERA. In fact, Stephen Strasburg was the only Cy Young vote-getter with an ERA over 3.00 in 2014. That’s why we should use ERA-, a park and league adjusted version of ERA that makes it easy to compare pitching in different eras. An ERA- of 100 is league average, and the lower the number the better. Using ERA-, Morris’ 1992 season (80) is almost on par with Zimmerman’s 2014 (72), despite the large gap between their ERAs. The difference between the ’93 pitching staff (96 ERA-) and this year’s (92 ERA-) is negligible when you adjust for the scoring environment.

Besides, the ’93 Jays featured one of the best bullpens of the ’90s.

Headlined by Duane Ward, Danny Cox, and Mark Eichhorn, the team’s relievers led the Majors with a combined 75 ERA. That number blows this year’s mark of 84 out of the water. Among relievers that year, Ward finished first in K/9 (12.18), second in WAR (2.6), fourth in saves (45), and sixth in ERA (2.13).

No one can question the 1993 Blue Jays’ bullpen dominance, but the one thing they didn’t have was a David Price! It’s almost unfathomable how dominant the 2015 Blue Jays’ ace has been. The soon-to-be Cy Young winner David Price and his AL-leading 2.45 ERA easily beats the 1993 team’s ace Juan Guzmán, who had a 3.99 ERA. The 2015 Jays have four starters with lower ERAs than Guzmán. In 1993, the Blue Jays gave up an average of 4.6 runs per game, just slightly below the league average, while the 2015 squad has allowed 4.1 runs per game, 13th best of any team this season. This year’s team beats the 1993 pitching staff in every major statistical pitching category including WHIP, strikeouts, and ERA. Sure, Duane Ward was nearly unhittable in ’93, but without a dominant ace, this year’s Jays pitching staff looks far more daunting to opposing offences than the ’93 squad.

DEFENCE

Ever since the Blue Jays removed error-prone shortstop Jose Reyes and moved Chris Colabello out of left field, the 2015 Jays’ defence has been spectacular. Everyone has seen Kevin Pillar’s highlight reel catches—the full speed over the shoulder diving catches he makes seemingly on a nightly basis. Old school Jays fans will froth at the mouth if anyone criticizes Roberto Alomar, but in baseball the numbers never lie and statistically Ryan Goins is a better second baseman than Alomar ever was. Sure Alomar might have won a golden glove that season, but he did so with a negative defensive WAR and 14 errors committed.

Cito Gaston—manager of the ’93 Jays—would have been better off with Ryan Goins at second. This year’s team produced the same amount of double plays while committing 21 fewer errors than the ’93 squad.

Offence

The 2015 Blue Jays outscored the 1993 team by 41 runs. The 1993 Blue Jays’ offence was good, excellent even, but in the post-steroid era, this year’s offensive firepower has been historic. In 1993, the Blue Jays had the fourth-best offence in the league. This year, Toronto doesn’t just have the best offence in the league, they’ve scored 128 more runs than OFFENCE the second place Yankees, and 41 more runs than the ’93 The ’93 Jays’ offence didn’t have 2015’s murderer’s row As noted Blue Jays historian Drake wisely team. The top of the lineup is like a death row for opposing of sluggers at the heart of its order, but it had one thing that said, the ’93 Jays went “back -to-back.” pitchers—pick your poison. If Ben Revere and his speed this year’s Jays did not: Balance. From top to bottom, the The team had more superstars, a better doesn’t kill you, Mount Crushmore has more firepower lineup featured power, speed, and above all, incredible onthan the 1993 team ever did. Josh Donaldson is simply a base skills. å This year’s team doesn’t have a single player record, and had more impressive stats in freak of nature, and Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and with an on-base percentage (OBP) over .400. The ’93 Jays the context of their era.

Troy Tulowitzki can each end games with one swing of the had three, led by John Olerud’s historic .473 OBP, the highest bat. It seems almost blasphemous to take anything away from single-season OBP in MLB since Mickey Mantle in 1962. Olerud Joe Carter in 1993, but with 33 home runs and a slugging percentdidn’t win the MVP, but the .122 spread between his (1.072) and age of .489 he would have been another guy on the 2015 Blue Jays.

Donaldson’s (.950) OPS is the same gap between Donaldson and ShinSoo Choo. ’93’s trio of Olerud, Roberto Alomar, and Paul Molitor didn’t Nobody can doubt how good Toronto’s offence was in 1993, but facing boast the power of Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion, but they have the the 2015 Blue Jays is like playing Monopoly against someone with hotels on advantage in average, OBP, and speed. Furthermore the disruptive speed of Alomar, Broadway and Parkview. It’s possible to make it around the board once or twice, but Devon White, and Rickey Henderson, the ’93 Jays stole almost twice as many bases as the 2015 sooner or later you’ll be overwhelmed by the stacked opposition. team (170 to 88).

Editors Pick

1993 Jays

Defence

Alomar alone blows the 2015 Jays out of the water. The Hall-of-Famer won 10 of the 11 Gold Glove awards given out from 1991 to 2001, a record among second basemen. If the opposing team somehow got the ball through the infield, they had to deal with the incomparable White in centre field. As excellent as Kevin Pillar has been for the 2015 Jays, his defensive tools don’t even come close to White’s. White, who peaked from 1991 to 1995, is one of four outfielders to ever win seven Gold Gloves. According to Fangraphs’ defensive runs above average statistic, the ’93 Jays posted a slightly better -3.7 (18th in MLB) than the ’15 Jays’ -10.8 (23rd).

X FACTOR

Rickey Henderson came to the Jays in a trade deadline deal on July 31 and immediately electrified the the offence with his supernatural speed. With the Hall-of-Famer batting leadoff, the team kicked into another gear, improving their winning percentage from .619 (60-45) to an utterly dominant .632 (36-21) clip over the remainder of the season. He managed to walk 35 times, steal 22 bases, and score 37 runs in just 44 games, adding a terrifying new component to an already scary Jays attack.

—Elie Waitzer

X-Factor

The Blue Jays’ real X-factor is Marcus Stroman. Stroman has been nothing short of spectacular since returning from a torn ACL. He has led Jays’ pitchers with a perfect 4-0 record and an ERA of 1.67 this September. Stroman will be the difference between a first round exit and winning a world series.

—Aaron Rose

16

Sports M a rt l et R u g b y

mcgill

35 - 0

C a r l eton

McGill shut out Carleton, still left hollow Victory no consolation for knocked out Martlets

Captain Audrey Marcotte leads her team off the field. (Emma Hammeau / McGill Tribune) fantastic handling and interplay with flanker Katrine Lightstone and senior centre Caroline Suchorski kept Carleton off balance and drew a Raven’s penalty in the 34th minute. Suchorski converted to put the score up 16-0.

“Audrey is our captain for a reason: She’s a great person and [leader],” Stephens said. “She’s a handful for every team we play […] she plays like this every

At kickoff against the Carleton Ravens (0-5) in Molson stadium on Saturday, the McGill Martlets (2-3) were as good as out of the postseason. By Sunday, a Concordia victory over Bishop’s saw them formally knocked out.

“After [the loss to Montreal] we realized we would have to rely

on [Concordia’s] results,” Head Coach Matthew Stephens said “We are not happy, [but] we [will] make the best of [our] situation.”

McGill did not show any anxieties about qualification on the pitch, however, with a confident, hard-hitting 35-0 victory over the Carleton Ravens. Captain and prop Audrey Marcotte, recently named an RSEQ All-Star, led the way with several incisive runs. Her

F rom t h e c h e a p se a ts

Tricolour on the cheap

Zikomo smith Sports Editor

Tuesday, Ocobter 6, 2015 game; it’s the only way she knows how.”

McGill methodically wore Carleton down for the whole game. Stephens made the tactical change of bringing on fullback Alexandra Robb in the second half to exploit Carleton’s tired legs and propensity to bunch around the ball. She rewarded him with a try in the 75th minute. Senior winger Deanna Foster passed to spring Robb loose, who then broke four tackles on her way to score a try.

“We actually had [Robb] watch in the first half to see where the space was,” Stephens said.

“Her job was to go in and turn the game around in the second half, and I think she did that.”

Prior to their lengthy break, the Martlets seemed worn out. “[The time off] was great because before that, we had four games in 15 days,” Stephens explained. “We needed that time off [....] We had a lot of tough games early without time to really prepare. No excuses, but we are trying to develop and get ourselves better.”

Stephens is keeping the Martlets focused as they play Bishop’s (0-4) next week.

“We are [focused on] getting

better and developing our players,” Stephens said. “That [does not] change as far as our preparation for Bishops.”

Sound bites “It’s not just about running and smashing people, it’s about playing and looking for space and going into gaps and this game was the best game we have this year of doing that.” Stephens on the Martlets’ progress this season.

Moment of the game Alexandra Robb got the ball in the 52nd minute and then proceeded to slalom past four Carleton defenders. She stepped sharply and wriggled loose of the grasping defenders, further deflating the Carleton defence.

Stat of the game McGill has their first positive point differential (99 for, 91 against) since Week 2.

Updated 10:45 p.m.: The Concordia Stingers defeated the Bishop’s Gaiters 81-5 on Sunday, knocking McGill out of the RSEQ playoffs.

Hockey is just as sweet in the pre-season more empathetic towards the tiring forwards than the two Martlets.

The format requires every player, even attackers, to forecheck and backcheck equally hard—and on the back-check it was obvious that the forwards were increasingly fatigued.

Unfortunately for us Habs fans, the Capitals prevailed 4-3 on a T.J. Oshie shootout goal. Despite the loss, I embraced the hockey for its richness and variety. And all it took were pre-season ticket prices and a spontaneous text from my roommate.

Nicole Spadotto Contributor I was reminded of the unobtrusive beauty of NHL pre-season hockey when my roommate, Martlet hockey goaltender Brittany Smrke, sent me a text reading: “Hey Nic, super spontaneous, but do you want to go see the Habs vs. Capitals game tonight?”

On a limited budget, we figured pre-season NHL action was the best chance to see a live Habs game.

The lower prices make the game accessible to hockey obsessives who can’t afford expensive inseason games, let alone the exorbitant playoffs. A small group of us headed to the Bell Centre— myself, Brittany, Emily (a Martlet hockey defenceman), and two of our Management friends who had just fuelled up at 4 à 7. As the two Ontarians, Brittany and I were teased mercilessly by our Quebecois friends for sporting tricolour and Habs hats.

We arrived at the Bell Centre and quickly learned of the ban on backpacks. A stream of rejects passed us, shaking their heads at Emily, who had her backpack slung nonchalantly over her shoulder.

I panicked, worried we would be turned away, and stuffed her backpack into my oversized purse.

Inevitably at security, a quizzical guard asked me what was in my bag.

Habs fans having a ‘wave’ of a time. (Photo courtesy of Dario Ayala / The Montreal Gazette) Without blinking, I told him it was my sweater. Fortunately, the guard laughed when he pulled out the backpack and let us in with a smile and a fist-bump.

We grabbed our seats in the nosebleeds, took the requisite amount of selfies, and appreciated the full view of the ice surface.

I was wedged between the two Martlet players, and we were soon analyzing the game through all three zones—Britt and Emily had the back end covered, noting the Habs’ nice zone and smooth breakouts. I pulled on my experience as a former Martlet forward to appreciate the offence—especially a Capital’s tictac-toe play, culminating in captain Alexander Ovechkin sniping top

corner.

Our Management friends covered the fan support side. They enjoyed the group cheers and the wave up in the cheap seats. Their joy of being at a Habs game was a heartwarming reminder that hockey is thrilling beyond the X’s and O’s.

Everyone could appreciate star players like P.K. Subban and Ovechkin single-handedly creating scoring opportunities. And though some tactical systems faltered— teams are rusty as they acclimatize to new formations—the breakdowns created odd-man rushes, to the appreciation of the crowd’s seasoned sports fans.

As much as I loved the tactical aspect, I still found myself caught up

in the atmosphere. I was exhilarated by a T.J. Oshie breakaway and the fight between Michael McCarron and Chris Brown. I chuckled at the cute tri-coloured kid dancing on the jumbotron screen. The pre-season matchup was about more than the hockey—it was about feeling in complete unity with cheering Habs fans and feeding off the energy in the stands; enjoying ‘the wave’ was just as important as a perfect Habs tape-to-tape pass.

Apparently the hockey gods wanted to give us more sport: The game extended into three-on-three overtime and then a shootout.

Brittany and Emily relished the creativity encouraged by threeon-three format. I agreed, but was